Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas earned sweet retribution at the Shanghai Masters on Friday, defeating old enemies in straight sets to advance to the third round. Medvedev, the world number five, came from behind in both sets to defeat Brazil’s Thiago Seyboth Wild 7-5, 7-5, while Tsitsipas battled through a tough match against Japan’s Kei Nishikori, winning 7-6 (8/6), 6-4. Medvedev and Seyboth Wild had only met once, but it was unforgettable. In the first round of the 2023 French Open, qualifier Seyboth Wild evicted the Russian, who was then ranked second in the world. On Friday, the tenacious Brazilian made it difficult for Medvedev by breaking early and pulling ahead 1-3.
But Medvedev persevered, closing the gap and then taking a critical break in the 11th game to win the set 7-5. Seyboth Wild led early in the second set as well, but Medvedev caught up and duplicated his previous accomplishment.
“It was not easy,” Medvedev stated on the court following the match. “Thiago played great… some shots were unbelievable.” Tsitsipas, who lost to Nishikori in Montreal in August, expressed satisfaction with his own “great fighting spirit”.
The Greek, who was formerly ranked third in the world, has fallen out of the ATP top 10 in recent months and is now placed 12th. Following his August defeat to Nishikori, a former world number four who was ranked 576th at the start of the Montreal event, Tsitsipas fired his father as coach after openly criticizing him.
The match was tight, with the opening set concluding in a nail-biting tiebreaker that might have gone anyway. “Overcoming it was good because it felt like I was able to restart now with a new mindset and it helped me get a bit of confidence.” In the second set, Nishikori, 34, who has been troubled by injury in recent seasons, needed a medical timeout.
Despite the crowd’s support, he never recovered his momentum, and Tsitsipas won four of the next five games to seal the victory. Late Friday, world number nine Casper Ruud lost to 91st-ranked Australian Aleksandar Vukic in straight sets. The defeat follows another early departure for the Norwegian at the Japan Open in late September.
Vukic expressed his “very proud” feelings.
“It was always going to be a very tough match, but I’m playing well so I didn’t really want to change much, just stick to my game plan,” says the 28-year-old. “I was really apprehensive, as is customary… “I tried to get it out of my system by grunting a little more,” he joked. Earlier in the day, American Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul easily advanced to the third round.
Shelton defeated Canada’s Denis Shapovalov 6-3, 7-5, while Paul defeated Italy’s Fabio Fognini 6-1, 6-3. Gael Monfils, a veteran Frenchman, will face colleague Ugo Humbert in the next round following his victory over Argentina’s Sebastian Baez.